When Beth Garnett's husband wanted to try pyrography, she dutifully went out and bought him a starter machine for his birthday. Little did she know where it would lead her.....
Pyrography is the art of drawing with fire, in this case applying a red-hot wire tip to the surface of wood in order to draw with the scorch marks it leaves behind. Beth, who has previously trained in illustration, had a go with the pyro machine and quickly found a new outlet for her own drawings.
"I was in this job that was making me really unhappy," she explains. "And I in the odd moment I would draw these cats on post-it notes. If I took a message for someone, they would get a cat drawing with it. If I was having a bad day, I'd doodle angry, sweary cats. Everyone in the office had their own cat drawing gallery on their desk."
Her husband carves local wood into spoons, and she started playing around with the offcuts. "Pyrography is really hard, " Beth admits.
"It makes your hand really sore, it's smokey, you have to draw really slowly and carefully and it can go wrong so easily! But I saw these little wood slices on the workroom floor and I drew a cat onto one. I turned it into a badge, put it online and the response was amazing."
In the couple of years since, Beth's work has grown in demand and she now stocks several local gifts shops and galleries in Cornwall. And she always has a list of orders to get through. "I sell on Etsy too, but I find things rarely get that far! My followers on Facebook and Instagram like to snap things up as I post things in progress. They keep me busy!"
Last year she was able to leave her job for a part time role so that she could meet the demand for her work. "That was amazing," she says. "Like a weight lifting from my shoulders. I still can't quite believe that people want these silly little cats. And my followers are brilliant, they just seem to share my sense of humour. Even when I think I might have gone a bit far, they completely get it. I can have so much fun with that."
What's her favourite thing to burn? "I never know what the cats are going to do from one design to the next. Sometimes they sing songs from the 90s. They're probably my favourite ones. Cats really like Hanson."
"But anything can be burned. Sloths....moths...birds....tapir...angler fish. I burned a newt recently."
As you do.
Find more of Beth's work on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ArtistBethGarnett and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/bethgarnett_artist/
More info: Instagram
